Alex Rodriguez: 2,000 RBI, 3,000 Hits soon.

No matter which list you use, Alex Rodriguez is near the top in career RBI, either fourth or second.

Elias Sports Bureau, Inc. v. reality. Friday, May 29, 2015

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/RBI_career.shtml

Rank	Player (yrs, age)	Runs Batted In	Bats
1.	Hank Aaron+ (23)	2297	R
2.	Babe Ruth+ (22)	2214	L
3.	Cap Anson+ (27)	2075	R
4.	Barry Bonds (22)	1996	L
	Alex Rodriguez (21, 39)	1996	R

During Yankee games we are told that the Elias Sports Bureau keeps the official MLB records and that data before about 1920 does not count and that therefor Alex Rodriguez has passed Babe Ruth in RBI even though everyone knows this is not correct.
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Not surprisingly no one at Elias has responded to the inquiry I mentioned in that post.  In 1990 I naively wrote separate letters asking for them to share some of their data to each of the three non founding Elias brothers and also to Seymour Siwoff, who purchased and ran the company for over 60 years. Not one of them had the common courtesy to reply. Nothing has changed.

Back to A-Rod.

We know for sure that Rodriguez recently passed Lou Gehrig in career RBI (1,995) and that Rodriguez is now tied with Barry Bonds.  I've long thought that what will get people's attention is when Rodriguez hits milestones with lots of zeros.  2,000 RBI is imminent.  Next up will be 3,000 Hits; Rodriguez has 2,987.

A few years ago the Yankees made a big deal when Derek Jeter passed Gehrig for most hits in the old Yankee Stadium.  Right.  What the heck kind of record is that?  Then, of course, the Yankees were orgasmic when Jeter reached 3,000 Hits with a home run off David Price in the new Yankee Stadium.

We've all heard about the Yankees denigrating their own product and brand by refusing to pay Rodriguez bonus money that the team agreed to as a means of adding money to the 2007 contract with Rodriguez and skirt rules about "luxury tax".  Rodriguez was to be paid $6 million for each player reached in career home runs.  Earlier this season Rodriguez passed Willie Mays who hit 660.

Mug shot of Barry Bonds Nov., 15 2007 by U.S. Marshals Service [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons

660 does not have enough zeros.  Rodriguez could reach 700 next season.  I think that will be a very big deal, especially with Rodriguez having already reached 2,000 RBI and 3,000 Hits this season.  Only Hank Aaron has reached those three.  Achieving those milestones after returning at age 39 from a full season suspension in 2014 will mitigate any reasonable taint from the use of performance enhancing drugs (PED) by Rodriguez.

People will have my reaction to Barry Bonds hitting 73 home runs in only 476 at bats in 2001: he may have used PED, he may be obnoxious but I have to hand it to him: this is amazing.